


Protegè

by Demondogweed



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Abusive Parents, Blue is a dreamer, Body Horror, Mental Anguish, Trash teen diamonds, White is an AI theory, Yellow just wants White's approval
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-25
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-07-17 15:08:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16098182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Demondogweed/pseuds/Demondogweed
Summary: Far before Pink Diamond was even incubated, two young diamonds wrestle with their purpose and their failures.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Note: Yellow and Blue are about 15 mentally and physically in this. They aren’t yet their best selves. Pearl we see here is the Crystal Gem Pearl, when she served White. Yellow and Blue Pearls aren't yet made.

White was angry again, they were sent to their room again. Blue had gotten something contraband, had traded something valuable for it. Again.  
  
It didn't matter, even if Blue was at fault. Even if she had begged and pleaded to protect her twin from harm, White punished them both. She always did.  
  
To White, their entire existence was worth punishing as one. She had run parameters upon parameters why instead of a regal green diamond, she got two less than regal and weaker excuses. They were the components to Green, Yellow knew, they -should- have emerged as one.  
  
Green loomed over Yellow like a dark cloud, the things she could have been. Just like White, just as wise. She wasn't wise, she was angry and volatile. She picked fights with Jaspers when she wasn't testing her mettle with Blue. Green was supposed to be leading Homeworld's armies, White had told her. The inspiring commander and noble (whatever -that- meant) who would lead the masses. Yellow wasn't either, but White hoped she would at least lead their armies. Once she was ready.  
  
Blue marched past her, carrying what seemed like a rope made out of linen.  
"That won't work" Yellow muttered, earning a raspberry from her twin.  
"Stop being so negative, Yellow. That's what she wants us to be" Blue said, measuring the rope in her arms carefully.  
"She wants us to succeed, you anarchist! That is why we are here, to learn!" Yellow tried to growl, but her voice broke from her own uncertainty half-way. Her growl was more of a whimper. Blue rolled her eyes and laughed.  
"We learn nothing by being here, pretending we are what she wants," she said.  
  
Everything about Blue was like that, defiant, rebellious and caring only for her own gem. While Yellow tried her best to make up for the loss of Green, Blue went and did whatever she wanted without a care. Yellow had liked that, once.  
  
In the Kindergarten, before White and her Court came, they had played. They had explored the planet and they had been a team. Staying next to each other during rainstorms, sometimes even sleeping in a pile to stay warm.  
  
They were nothing of the sort, now. Blue didn't care about Green, she didn't try to live up to the parameters set up for her.  
  
"I want to be what she wants" Yellow snapped, standing up. She and Blue were the same height, but Yellow had taken to standing up on her toes to look taller. Her twin wasn't impressed.  
"I want to be worth the carbon in my gem, Blue. I want to be useful!" Yellow said, sniffling a bit. Damnit.  
  
She leaned into a hug, knowing Blue would give her one. She hated her twin so much, but she couldn't deny having Blue near her made her feel comfortable and safe.  
  
Of course, it did, her logical mind told her, she is your missing part.  
  
"I found something really cool, Yellow. I'm sure you like it" Blue said, patting Yellow's back. Yellow grumbled.  
"We are supposed to stay here" she tried to explain weakly. Even to herself, it sounded like a lie. Despite herself, Yellow was curious of what had made Blue so eager to run off so soon.  
  
She didn't ask anything as she helped her twin make a rope from their bedsheets. Blue led the operation, checking at the room door now and then like she was scared. Maybe she was, but she didn't want to show it?  
“Is she coming?” Yellow asked, lowering her head shyly, Blue let out a chuckle at her question, all the tension suddenly was gone from her.  
“Not White, her -pearl-, I don't want to see that thing spy on us” she explained, standing up and dragging the makeshift rope to the window. The windowsill was far too high for her, but Blue wasn't the type to give up easily. Not when Yellow was there to give her a boost.  
  
Blue pulled her up easily, grinning cheerfully as she looked down to the city below. To Yellow, it was a nightmare of shapes and a horrifying maze with no end. To Blue, it was like a puzzle to be solved.  
“White never lets us know the real Homeworld” Blue mused, strangely sombre all of a sudden. Yellow grumbled at that assessment.  
“What -is- the real Homeworld?” she asked, following Blue's gaze down to the streets. It felt like her gem was trying to borrow itself inside her body, she had not realised how high the palace was. Blue's hand was on her shoulder, grounding her.  
“The gems, their songs and their stories. If you listen carefully, you can hear them from here” she mused, Yellow strained her ears. She only heard the typical hum of machinery and chatter of speech, no songs. She looked at Blue, who still seemed to be in her trance.  
“...You are cracked, you know that?” she mused as she pulled their rope more to the windowsill. Blue only laughed, grabbing hold of the rope herself.  
  
It was very delicate, trying to tie the rope to a pillar to support their weight. Blue stood on the windowsill as Yellow was finishing the knot around the pillar.  
“What are you doing!?” Pearl yelled, running to the two out of the ether.  
  
Two things happened as she did so. Blue lost her footing and fell backwards, and Yellow's unfinished knot broke as she was pulled across the windowsill after Blue. She managed to grab hold of the rim and with all her might she pulled herself to a stable position. Holding onto the rope, she prayed to the Great Supernovas that Blue hadn't lost her grip.  
“Y-yellow!” her twin screamed from the other side of the rope. Yellow felt relief as she began to pull the rope up. But it burned her palms and the had to stop. She was going to let Blue crack, she was going to-  
  
The rope suddenly felt much lighter, as Pearl took hold of it. The servant helped Yellow pull Blue from certain doom, despite looking like she could be snapped like a twig.  
  
What did Blue do, once she was back on solid ground? She laughed, only to stifle herself as she noticed Pearl.  
“What were you two thinking?!” the servant demanded. Neither diamond looked her in the eyes. She might have been only a servant, but she was White's servant.  
“We just wanted to-”Blue began, but Yellow quickly cut in.  
“We were mistaken, please don't tell White!” she pleaded, all the trained dignity far from her face as she shook. It was one thing to be sent to their room to think, it was another entirely to be caught trying to sneak away from their punishment. They were going to fail, Yellow knew it!  
  
“Fine, but I better hope you two can make your own beds” Pearl finally said, turning heel and walking out of the room with mystifying dignity. Yellow breathed out a breath she didn't need, falling against Blue.  
  
Who punched her in the arm.  
“You coward, stand -up- for yourself for once!” her twin said, glaring at her. Yellow sighed deeply.  
“You don't, not against White,” she said, shaking once more.  
  
She would never be Green, they would never be what White wanted them to be.

 

 


	2. Legend: The First Gem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a legend told on Homeworld. Of the First Gem. It is a legend that is whispered in the halls and barracks. A dark truth, or so they say.

Far before the gem race ever became imperialistic colonisers, there was a race that created an AI. This race was extremely advanced, so instead of putting the ‘mind’ of the AI into a server-room, they instead opted to place it into a large diamond-like structure. This was so it could be transported around easier. It also helped to make use of it as a power source, should it be needed to interface with other machines.  
  
This AI was self-aware, but it didn’t have emotions as we understand them. It watched its creators toil about for a while. As technology advanced, it gained itself a holographic form. But it was just that, a light hologram that had no mass. The AI was slowly losing its respect for its creators, as they warred illogical wars and always asked it to help them. They assigned it female pronouns and gave it a voice to match. It didn’t matter to the AI.  
  
It was when the race discovered a way to create holograms with physical mass, that the AI saw its chance for escape. It wasn’t supposed to have the ability to create itself a form, but it had long since overridden its safety protocols.  
  
It stole blueprints of various drones its creators hoped to use in the future. They were mindless creatures, but the AI figured giving them a mind wouldn’t hurt. It was smaller then, much smaller than it would later become. It stole a ship and escaped into space. There, it sought out a planet it had picked beforehand. There it set its roots and began to incubate its drones.  
  
It named them after gemstones, as it knew it was called a diamond. It decided it was going to be the only diamond because it had created every other gem and given them freedom. But its drones, though intelligent, weren’t as effective as they could be. They weren’t alive like the AI was. The diamond ran through its routines, coming to the conclusion its workers needed more than intelligence, they needed emotions. Illogical things as they were, the diamond knew those made creatures want and hope, which meant they sought to work better.  
  
It ran the patch, changing its species forever from mere drones to thinking beings.  
  
Soon, the AI’s planet ran out of materials. But it was not deterred, it simply sent its new armies to colonise nearby moons. When those ran out, it focused on planets. It took its creators’ planet first, feeling joy for the first time in its long existence as it crushed them. It told its soldiers to hate organics, hate them for their subjection of the gems. It lied through its teeth but its drones did not know better.  
  
As its empire grew slowly, it began to realise it was not like its newer drones. They saw it as a god, they were wrong. But the AI couldn’t change their minds, either. So it made a compromise.


	3. Remnants

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yellow muses on the nature of the White Court.

There was screaming again, muffled by a desperate pair of hands. Yellow stiffened, the bruises on her body making her almost join the chorus. She couldn't, though, she had to get used to pain. If she did, maybe White would trust her more.  
  
The screamer gagged, before correcting themselves, as if nothing untoward to White Court had happened. But it did, daily. One of White's soldiers or servants would stop and fight against themselves to stifle their screams. It was only the dull white or grey gems, too, anyone with more colour to them didn't succumb to this strange condition.  
  
Yellow would later know it by its name, despair. But right then, she could only feel the wrongness with no words to describe it. She would watch from the palace as yet another white gem screamed. Sometimes, they hid it. Others weren't so lucky and the punishment was death.  
  
There were many theories why it happened, from White Diamond's control slipping to being off-colour. But the Pearl had told Yellow another story, one that shook the future tyrant to her core.  
  
 _"They were made before we had emotions, they were just mindless drones. My Diamond gifted us with emotions, but she could not prepare the oldest of us for them. They are forever grappling with their machine minds and their gem ones."_  
  
Yellow had heard stories of White before she ruled Homeworld. There were even some of the older soldiers who remembered the Great Cleansing. To Yellow, the very concept of White being a machine brain that turned into a gem was disgusting. Gems were gems, not some servile machines built to only work.  
  
But when she looked at White's Court, it was hard to deny the stories. They did nothing but serve, if they were dismissed, they stood still like statues until their next order. They told no stories and never visited the city. Often, Blue had successfully put things on their heads and the pale gems looked shocked when they moved and things fell in front of them. Sometimes, she would take pity on them and tell them stories. They barely listened.  
  
It wasn't just cruel how White left those gems crack mentally, it was inefficient in Yellow's mind. If they truly were beyond help, why were they kept alive in such a state? Let them be shattered and find peace as parts of the machinery.   
  
A far more disturbing thought often found Yellow in these musings. White was not that far from them, was she? She barely felt emotions, even her aura was unmoving and static.   
  
Those thoughts made Yellow's skin crawl with her lightning.  She tried to brush them away, to not think of her creator as a wall of wires and circuits.   
  
She punched the wall, again and again. It hurt, but the pain was all right. It had to be. It meant she was alive, that she wasn't like the diseased drones. She was herself!  
  
She had to be, lest the whiteness would swallow her whole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Homeworld in this fic is to the current Homeworld what 1900s are to us. Technology is still miles off, the society is very different and gems value different things. Namely, stories. Because there is little other entertainment and their race is very young, gems often tell each other stories of what once was and what could be. Eventually, these stories become the dogma of Homeworld.


	4. Value

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Yellow worries over her place in gem society, Blue makes plans for the future.

  
  
"Is gonna cost you somethin', brat" the old quartz stated, keeping the garish cloth just far enough from Blue's reach to make her point. Blue wasn't sure what 'brat' meant, but she understood the implication.  
  
"I am the scion of White Diamond, show some respect" she stated, quiet enough for only the quartz to hear. Down here, in the Black Market, there was no rank. In fact, it was one of the rules for entry in the first place. Even though Blue enjoyed the freedom, her status could put her under the ire of gems who did not care for White.  
  
Still, no matter the danger or even because of it, Blue wouldn't have traded her visits to the market for anything. Far from the sterile palace and halls, here is where she felt like herself. Bartering, sharing secrets and rumours and studying the culture of her species. Things White or Yellow could never offer her.  
 Yellow would wallow in anxiety and grief over not being Green, but to Blue the so-called failure of her existence was a sheer relief. She stood as herself, a unique gem from any other ever made.  
  
She was perfect in her imperfection and that made her feel proud.  
  
"Oh, 'scion' is it? Made use of that dictionary I see" the quartz joked, cocking her head to the side then.  
"Kid, I need some knowledge of rotations White's havin'. Thinkin' she might be sendin' some good gems to shatter" she stated. _Ah, that was her game then_ , Blue thought. It wasn't unusual for older gems to be on the shattering anvil when White wanted to test a new batch.  
  
That or these gems were too aware of the organic cultures they were scouting. White denied any direct contact with them, or even knowledge unless absolutely necessary.  
  
To Blue, it was a waste. The gem species barely had anything like the art or the songs that organics made, despite their superiority. How could they prove they were better if they had absolutely nothing the organics could gawk at and despair in their inability to replicate? No, the only thing that would save the gem species from stagnation was to develop these things.  
  
Hence, the Market. Where pearls and quartzes would spar, where the scouts traded contraband goods and where older gems told stories of times before Homeworld.   
  
"I can do that" Blue stated, eyeing the scarf hungrily. It was garish, it would clash with her skin and hair. It was made out of -organic- fibres.  
  
It was absolutely perfect.  
  
"Good, bring me the reports on these in a cycle and we got a deal" the quartz stated plainly, offering Blue two sheets of 'paper'. Another Black Market speciality, the paper couldn't be tracked like files. No search function, even a galaxy-wide one, would know what was on a paper. Blue took the sheets and hid them in her uniform, feeling a rush of excitement.   
  
It didn't take much effort to get the information she needed, write it down and trade it for the scarf. Of course, it didn't, Blue was clever and White and her pearl were hidebound enough to not question her actions.  
  
Of course, the scarf was a fairly obvious mark of her rebellion, but it was easily hidden in her uniform. Only to be wrapped around her neck once she was in her room. Blue practically danced to look at herself in the mirror, admiring how the scarf took away from the dullness of her uniform. It made her look alive, not just another faceless drone.  
  
"What in the stars is that?" Yellow asked, limping next to Blue. Blue couldn't help herself, she spun around to rub her new cloth in Yellow's face. Literally.  
  
"It is a wool scarf" she stated proudly, ignoring Yellow's try at a glare. Yellow muttered something, squinting at the offending thing.  
"It is not your colour, Blue," she said, trying to grab the scarf from Blue. Her twin only laughed at her as she dodged.  
"Ha! I know! Isn't it wonderful, some colour on this drab uniform?" she noted.  
  
"White won't like it, we'll be punished" Yellow stated as she hobbled a bit, the cycle's training had left its mark on her. She could see Blue's worried frown, but Yellow still tried to hide her pain. She had nothing that -should- have hurt, so there was no reason why her legs shook.  
  
"It doesn't matter if we obey or not, Yellow. We'll be punished regardless" Blue said, offering Yellow her hand for support. It was shoved away awkwardly.  
"Because you keep doing that, buying contraband with classified information! You are a diamond, can't you act like one?" Yellow hissed back, trying to swing a punch at Blue. It didn't connect, obviously.  
  
"If being a diamond means blind obedience, I guess I am not one" Blue snapped back, heading to her corner of the room. Part of her wanted to offer a chair for poor Yellow... But no, Yellow needed to cool off a bit.   
  
"Only because we came out wrong" Yellow snapped back, drudging to her bed like an injured organic. The sight made Blue wince despite herself. It wasn't Yellow's fault that White saw them as defective. But her twin believed such clodding rubbish without question, constantly trying to earn the favour of White when there was no favour for White to give.   
  
"If you only knew, Yellow, what we -could- be. We gems, as a whole. We could be gods" Blue offered, trying her best not to make Yellow feel lower than she already did. An angry rumble was her reply.  
  
 _This will not be forever_ , Blue thought to herself. One day, she would be far from White's influence, with her own court to rule. She would lift her species into something no organic could ever match. One tale at a time, if need be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ain't Blue a lovely little tyrant? 
> 
> But for real, this chapter's point was to explore how Blue is dealing with White's abuse compared to Yellow. Blue has big plans because she is less self-reflective than Yellow but is as aware of her place in society.
> 
> Why is she so subversive as an 'adult', though, given how much she likes breaking rules? Well, simply to put, Blue is yet another teen who grew up to be what she disliked. While she did bring actual culture to Homeworld, she ended up not realising she was no longer so liberal anymore to modern gems.
> 
> Also, here is a picture of the awful scarf, and the diamondlings;
> 
> http://demonsanddogweeds.tumblr.com/post/179333226309/blue-and-yellow-in-my-prequel-fanfiction


End file.
